Industry Brief:
- More than 48,000 students applied to medical school this year, breaking a record set in 1996, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Meanwhile, the number enrolling in med school rose past 20,000 for the first time.
- The rise in students should eventually help address the coming doctor shortage which is expected to be driven by the entry of 25 million newly-insured patients under the Affordable Care Act. But it's unlikely med schools can fully meet this demand, which is projected to climb 10-fold to 130,000 by 2025.
- The problem is made worse by the fact that residency slots, three-quarters of which are paid for by Medicare, are currently capped—and have stayed at the same level since 1997.
- Unlike their older peers, the majority of rising medical students say they'd prefer to be employed in health systems, which offer more resources than private practice.
Dive Insight:
While some critics have contended that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act would drive students out of medicine, these results suggest the opposite -- that health reform has made medicine more attractive. But even if that's true, implementation of the ACA is likely to stall if medical schools can't produce enough doctors to serve the millions who become insured under its programs. Funding for med school residencies must increase dramatically to meet this need. Expect a vigorous debate on expanding residency funding in Congress when the newly-insured begin to wait months to see a doctor.